The forces of Poland will require some time to create an offensive fleet powerful enough to conquer more than one or two systems. While we wait for hundreds of new cruisers to poor out of the Spaceports, we send Agent Tarfan on a most dangerous mission, to slay the head Rat in charge of the Ziltrus Syndicate! It is very risky, but Agent Tarfan's skills demand more engaging work, beyond destroying Gas Mines (for which we have an abundance of younger agents).

In the meantime, it is the year 2788, and we need more fleets! We're good on defense, in case one of our more scary neighbors (think: Slukens) decide to attack. However, our offensive fleets were cut in half during the brief second war with the Ugnari. We mean business, next time.. it may take ten years to build up, but we think we can get away with much more than one system. The first thing an Empire needs is good borders, no? We're going to make it happen!

Agent Tarfan returns.. he has not succeeded, but he managed to escape without being detected. We ask: Why didn't you try again?

We are moving rapidly into the 2790s. We expect this to be a bloody era in front of us, but worth it once the dust settles.

Hmmm. I've heard the opposite, but I could be wrong. My friend in the air force says he sees a ton of people from Oregon and he is stationed in Wyoming! I've heard this from many people though so it seems there may be something to it? I have three friends from here that have joined. All different branches as well.

Hmmm. I've heard the opposite, but I could be wrong. My friend in the air force says he sees a ton of people from Oregon and he is stationed in Wyoming! I've heard this from many people though so it seems there may be something to it? I have three friends from here that have joined. All different branches as well.

I can only speak for the Army. I imagine Oregonians would fare much better in the Navy or Airforce, where open-mindedness is easier to find.

Thanks! There is something that has been bugging me, though. The % Bar next to character skills.. is that a percentage of total potential achieved, or just an experience bar that tells you how close you are to the next level?

Great AAR G. Cube! It's really funny and fun to watch. Even more so, as I am from Poland myself. You're doing a great job on editing the galaxy maps and screenshots to make them more vivid and comprehensive. Keep it up!

I'm glad you guys like them! The "Atlas" took quite some time, since I had to copy-paste from a couple-dozen different screenshots, but I think it turned out pretty good.

They aren't just fluff! Most of the markings on those maps reflect in-game realities. The Spice is mostly travelling along the Spice Road before dispersing to the rest of my empire.

Also, having these screenshots posted gives me the chance to click on my own signature link, look at the maps, and come up with some new strategies that I might not have thought of while actually playing the game.

We have officially reached the end of the early game. It is now the mid-game, and there are precious few more gains to be had from colonizing. From here on out, our entire focus should be expansion at the expense of others--and where we don't expand, we must make sure that we defend. Our Victory conditions are daunting, but we are well on our way. Updates will be longer, more detailed, and also probably farther in between. Where the early years of colonization pass by like an action movie, the rest of this game will pass very slowly, methodically, and catiously. Storylines are enabled, but there is no sign of anything strange yet. Victory Conditions do not apply until 2808, but it will likely be much longer before anyone reaches the threshold. We are not sure what "Winning" actually means, but we are excited. We hope there is a T-Shirt.

That said, are you ready for another one!? We have not talked much of the other Empires in the Local Cluster. It is time! In...

Interlude - Diplomacy - 2789

We start off by looking at our Empire's finances. Considering this was taken at the very beginning of 2789, this is pretty fantastic. Only the Ackdarians have a military larger than ours, and we have the formidable Quameno as Allies should they consider moving into our part of the Galaxy. The Alliance with the Quameno is one of convenience, and one that we had to pay lots of money for. They didn't want our backwards tech, so this Alliance took a very long time to build. Our Empire:

The Quameno, who have proven incredibly valuable trading partners, and formidable Allies. Still, should any ever decide to emigrate to our Empire, they would still be put in Slavery. Our attitude towards alien life has given us precious few friends.

Because of the Atuukian proximity to the Ugnari, we were hoping we could prop them up as Allies. Instead, they've been manhandled by the Haakonish next door. Still.. they are one of the few Empires willing to buy our outdated tech, and we would step in to intervene if it looked as though they were about to be wiped out.

The Ackdarians have been going crazy against the Mortalens. Their Military Strength is incredible, and even more incredible considering that they have only just begun to develop most of their colonies. We are afraid of these fish-people.

In the extreme 'north' of Local Space, there are the Mortalens and Slukens. The Mortalens have clearly been on the losing end of a long struggle with the Ackdarians. We send them tech and money to try and change the tide of war, and the Ackdarians haven't made territorial gains in years. Still.. we don't have much hope for the Lizards. The Slukens have been very quiet. Their Empire is large, and surely that is only a fraction of their potential military strength. Their proximity to our northern border is unsettling, and the main reason we haven't sent everything we have against the Ugnari.

And of course, the Rats. They've lost two wars to us, including two systems and four planets. We intend to continue taking their territory, perhaps even completely enslaving the entire Empire. Lets not get ahead of ourselves, though.

There are several minor Gizurean factions, and a Boskaran faction that shares a system with the Ugnari near the Ugnari Home System.

There are many pirate factions operating in local space, but we are only allied with one. They are ideally positioned to cause give our future enemies some current trouble.

A well done political overview GCube. Ever since I've read 'Emperor Fred' I can't look the same at the Quameno though. I always see them as slimy toads, not to be trusted . It couldn't hurt to have a fleet or two near thier systems, just to be sure. The potatoe-headed Haakonish look kinda dodgy too... One can't ever trust a potatoe-head. And the over-evolved newts, the Ackdarians? Thier sheme to take over every little pond known to exist in the galaxy is well known. What are newts good for anyways? You can't even eat them...

WW II in space? Great idea! :D If something like that would be done than I would like to play as... USSR!!! :D In Hearts of Iron I loved to paint all world in RED! :D My global "walk" always started from Poland and usually was ending in Tokyo :) But unfortunatly as Nedrear said - it is impossible to mod this game to that degree (I am no moder - I just believe in His opinion).

As for the AAR, I think that it is really time to change goverment to a diffrent one. If You want to do this according to Polish history You should chose from Democracy and Military Dictatorship (or Despotism - depending how to look at certian things).

And I do agree that Your plans on maps (and names, and other stuff which is added by You) are actually great addiction - this really help to understand what actually is going on and what You plan... I mean, Poles in the space are planning to do :)

And for "Winning" must be a proper T-shirt!!! :D:D:D <----- Another thing which made me almost fell from my chair :)

To be more historically accurate the shandar should break away from the empire, and then conquer a third of it (like the Prussians) , the ugnari should conquer another third of it (being like the Russians) and the Quameno should come and conquer the rest so that the Ugnari and Shandar won't get too powerful (like the Austrians) That would be what I'd call historical accuracy

If something like that would be done than I would like to play as... USSR!!! :D In Hearts of Iron I loved to paint all world in RED! :D My global "walk" always started from Poland and usually was ending in Tokyo :) But unfortunatly as Nedrear said - it is impossible to mod this game to that degree (I am no moder - I just believe in His opinion).

I said a positioned scenario is impossible unless you edit savegames to support that demand. A mod "based" on WW II is in my WIP:

WW II in space? Great idea! :D If something like that would be done than I would like to play as... USSR!!! :D In Hearts of Iron I loved to paint all world in RED! :D My global "walk" always started from Poland and usually was ending in Tokyo :) But unfortunatly as Nedrear said - it is impossible to mod this game to that degree (I am no moder - I just believe in His opinion).

As for the AAR, I think that it is really time to change goverment to a diffrent one. If You want to do this according to Polish history You should chose from Democracy and Military Dictatorship (or Despotism - depending how to look at certian things).

And I do agree that Your plans on maps (and names, and other stuff which is added by You) are actually great addiction - this really help to understand what actually is going on and what You plan... I mean, Poles in the space are planning to do :)

And for "Winning" must be a proper T-shirt!!! :D:D:D <----- Another thing which made me almost fell from my chair :)

Democracy is very tempting, because my economy is just begging for that boost--and my research really needs it. I am very nearly as outdated as that little Atuuk empire. Only the Gizureans are way behind me. But the maintenance costs would murder me right now, since I'm barely breaking even most of the time. Hard to maintain a 43k Firepower Navy with only 28 Colonies!

But, on the other hand, if democracy came with abolition of slavery.. we'd be rich as hell immediately. I've got at least eight 2000M+ Population planets full of aliens that just haven't been put to work or sent to the penal colonies yet.

But.. if we go Military Dictatorship, our Research will go from -25% to 0%, and our Maintenance will get even easier. I already have an approval penalty from Fuedalism, and the Military Dictatorship is only a little worse.

IMO, Fuedalism is the worst government to start with, aside from Corporate Nationalism. But it does give you a good incentive to risk the civil war and go for the revolution later on! We won't be intentionally having one any time soon, but it definitely will happen eventually.

All that said, I'm glad you guys like it! I'm preparing the next update as you read this.

Ready for more? The year 2789 did not continue to pass entirely without incident. The galaxy is becoming a very complicated place! In...

Session Eleven (I think): Slukens at War!

Yes! The Slukens have finally come out of the shadows and shown themselves to be violent, angry little insects. And to think we were trying to butter them up for an alliance!? We don't care that they are war-like, but we do care that they are expanding towards our territory, at the expense of our Ugnari tributaries. If they interfere with consolidation of the Empire's borders, we will be forced to go to war with them eventually.

It wasn't long before they showed up in an Ugnari system with bombs-for-delivery. Our subjegation of the Ugnari gives us a unique chance to watch the Slukens at work. As long as they don't get too greedy, this could work out perfectly for us. After our build up is complete, perhaps the Ugnari will be at the breaking point with the Slukens? Such a coincidence would be perfect! Still, it makes us sad to watch a planet full of Humans get blown to peices.

In the end, nobody is left.

In other news, the colony of humans that revolted during the last Ugnari war has proven to be a very good outpost! It provides good trading (if that's what you want to call it) with the Ugnari, while at the same time being a heavily fortified forward outpost in their own space.

Towards the end of the year, the Ackdarians offered us Mining rights! Ambassador Bendu (known as Big-Mouth-Bendu around the Emperor's court) must be making quite an impression.

But, they're probably just hoping we'll come take care of their Silvermist problem! These strange clouds of murderous microscopic nano-tribbles are almost certainly the only reason the Ackdarians have not taken over the Mortalens by now.

Remember Angry Spectre? That Pirate that we never caught? Times have changed, and we long for such a valiant opponent. Instead, we are surrounded by much less savory foes, against much higher stakes.

That concluded 2789, but the Build-up is only just beginning. We have been spending every last penny we have on tech from the Quameno, and on Crash Research, but it is still incredibly slow going trying to create a powerful fleet that could content with--potentially--the Ugnari and the Sluken at the same time. Still.. we're getting there.

Finally! A real war! Not all-out devastation, but certainly a doozy! In...

Session Twelve: Third Ugnari War

The Third Ugnari War, began in the beginning of 2790, and going to the latter-part of 2791, os remembered fondly by the Polish Empire. It's like World War II for the United States: We came, we saw, we conquered. There was hardship, counter-offensives, massive land engagements, and long-distance fleet action. It was such a rousing war, in fact, that it once again spawned its' own genre of Holocina. These "UW3" (Ugnari War III) movies were very quickly a dime-a-dozen, and most were just awful. The smash hits Saving Private Banthu and "Battle of R-Prime" however, had some staying power. And that's not saying anything for the video games! Call of Duty: Battle of R-Prime was a best-seller, and spawned several good sequels and even more bad ones.

But we digress. This was the first interstellar war that the Empire deemed worth an actual 'proper' declaration of war. It was delivered by text message, since we assumed they'd shoot the Ambassador. I mean, seriously? They must be seething by now.

The declaration was followed swiftly by two quick invasions in the Northern Resource Area.

Very quickly we have managed to damage the Ugnari position in the North! They must surely be busy with the Slukens, still. We don't think we'll get hit by any hard counter-attacks just yet.

More invasions followed... by now our Navy is immense, and we can afford to send many of the Core Worlds fleets on the attack.

The last great battle of the war was the Battle of Ralteer Prime. This, of course, is the same Ralteer Prime system that defected from the Ugnari during the last war. They came with a large fleet, while we had no fleets in the area. They were not counting on our strong Defenses, but still.. had they gotten through, likely our troops would only just barely have been able to hold out for re-enforcements.

They entered the system...

Incredibly violence ensued. We may lag technologically, but our Fuedal style of government allows us to field immense amounts of troops, and immense discounts on base and naval maintenance. In this instance, though, it's just enemy fleet against friendly orbital installations.

They take an immense pounding, but refuse to leave without doing some lasting damage. We think we wiped out at least half of the attacking force, while losing only a single orbital battery. The battle took several months.

Eventually, they give up and leave for easier targets.

After none of their counter-offensives gain any traction, and after complete success on our part, peace is offered to the Ugnari--once again, they will be required to pay us tribute. This is unsurprising, since they are still at war with the Slukens. We can only imagine that a war with us was the last thing they wanted. All the better for us to have done it! The war could have gone on for much longer, but our Invasion Flotillas were empty, and our offensive fleets were becoming disorganized. We are getting good at this short kind of war, but we wonder if we'd be any good against a foe with more resources at their disposal.

Speaking of Slukens.. still at war with the Ugnari, and their Military Strength is increasing. They seem determined to expand in our direction.. this will be a problem later, we suspect.

The war was shorter and easier than we expected. We seem destined for some peace--there is no reason to expand further, for now. Our focus instead must shift to protecting what we have, and finding ways to become stronger internally. There are whispers of revolution, but nothing serious yet...

We accpet defeat and acknowledge your status as our ruler, but we're getting very tired of this!

Hilarious!

It looks like the Polish Empire is slowly gaining advantage in the galaxy. I agree that the ants will try to cause some trouble in the near future. Rats will probably be reduced to one system only, very soon. I still wouldn't trust the toads. The shape of their empire borders seems sinister... ;)

Hangover be damned, the guys been inhaling god knows what through that respirator for days now.

Looking forward to the continuation. The size and tech of the Q's is a worry for longer term. Right now they're unlikely to cause problems as long as the diplomacy is right. Perhaps if the Shak don't turn up it can be an end of game showdown? Although I forget your victory conditions... it could be all over before that.

Whew.. yeah, sorry about that. Had to go around and edit a bunch of my posts after I woke up, lol. Not half as bad as my facebook, though.

Anyway! I'm not worried about the Quameno. They don't seem aggressive, and they aren't even close in their victory conditions. In the short term, my biggest rival is the Ackdarians, although I don't think they see it that way. We're neck-and-neck in the victory conditions, and in fleet size, although my economy is much larger. They'll only get stronger as they eat the Mortalen empire as well.

But even then, I see the Ackdarians as people I want on my side, for now, in case the Slukens go crazy. Slukens are probably the scariest race to fight against, simply because they always build as many troops as they can afford--and sometimes more.

No.. the real trick seems like it will come from trying to expand enough to keep pace with my rivals, without making any of them overly angry (besides the Ugnari), since I'm in 1st place for now. But if I slack off, the Ackdarians could easily overtake me in Victory Points.

And, of course, if the Shakturi show up then all plans are moot and I go into survival mode. Right now we're still barely scratching the surface of third tier techs... so I hope it's a long time before they show up. I'd like to double the size of the Polish Empire, have a few hundred capital ships, and maybe even a better form of government before they arrive, but it's all really up in the air anyway, since I'm trying to roleplay this one a little. I find Distant Worlds is best enjoyed in a leisurely fashion.. just takes too much energy to conquer the universe in one fell swoop.

I thought peace time was, generally speaking, supposed to be peaceful? We have learned better! In...

Session Thirteen: Even More Pirates, Except Worse

The 2790s are chugging along, and the great and mighty Polish Empire is booming! Our economy is the best in the universe, and once we went over the tedious tax code we managed to reduce our overall cashflow deficit by over two thirds--although we still live or die by our Trading Agreements and Ugnari Tribute. It is good times for the Polish Empire, if only the universe would leave us alone for a spell!

But first... our diplomats report extra frosty relations with the Mechanoids of late. It would appear, apparently, that the machines are jealous of us! This is very good for morale.

But, of course, bad news. Apparently, the Ackdarians have built some kind of wondrous technology station or something. We are not impressed. Although we are still impressed by their Navy.

Also, after nearly 35 years of uninterrupted sabatoge, assasinations (and many more attempts), and all-around skullduggery, the Ugnari finally realize what we've been doing! The entire space-time contiuum collectively facepalmed for them.

But that's not really bad news, right? No, no. This is bad news. Apparently, we've got some Genghis Khan-in-space-except-antlike folks running about our part of the Galaxy, and it's not good.

We got our first taste of these so-called Phantoms at the battle of Gambler's Shelter. A small base in the middle of a vast gas cloud on our northern frontier.

It was a bloody battle. We damaged or destroyed many of the small ships, but the bigger ones simply ran away once it was apparent that we posed a real threat. They did a real good number on the fleet at Gambler's Shelter, and this represents our first loss, of sorts, in Space Combat.

The remaining ships, heavily damaged or depleted of supplies and fuel, move off to get fixed. Technically we won, but it was pyrrhic by our standards.

There are several small skirmishes and raids, happening in enough places to give even our great Navy some trouble. Many lone cruisers and other larger ships slipped through our defenses and damaged mining stations and research sites, and even a resort base. But where we caught them, we tended to overwhelm them pretty comprehensively. Numbers is our game, and we're pretty good at it.

We thought they were getting the worse of these exchanges until they started showing up in the Shandar Zone with doom fleets. The Battle of Dum-Braddin 1 was a win for us, but only because we happened to have a large fleet in the system, freshly fueled and retrofitted.

We have a rough idea of their area of operations, as far as it concerns us. It may extend considerably farther north and west, but these are the areas where they are harassing us. We wish eagerly to find their base, and crush it.